Pick up bed into a trailer

[flyerdan]

Another reason not to pull the differential is that keeps the axle ends from floating. Otherwise they'd flop around in the housing and the tires would travel in eccentrics setting up a horrible wobble like a bent rim. If the diff is in good shape you won't loose that much from parasite drag, put some moly gear additive in and call it good.

 

[Mace Canute]

Like the title says. Has anyone done this before? We have the old bed off my fathers truck and the cross members that are under the floor were rotted out. The remainder of the bed is in great shape. I was thinking maybe we could turn it into a trailer.

If the cross members are rotted out, the box is garbage as far as making a trailer out of it unless you replace them with something suitable for the application.

I've made a couple from Chevy 1/2 ton truck frames. I started with complete truck frames and boxes, on both I notched the frame at the headboard and vee'd it in to the hitch. The front ends went to the recyclers. On one I used a trailer ball coupler like this

so it had a shorter length hitch and on the other I had a long length of heavy wall 3" X 3" square tubing which I used to make an extended length tongue. I was able to extend one end it under the box to a heavy crossmember I added between the frame rails and the front end was attached to the Vee'd in truck frame rails and terminated in a 2" ball coupler that fit on the tubing.

I opened up both differentials and removed just the ring gears leaving everything else in place and filled them with the cheapest oil I could buy to continue lubing the bearings. I've seen these type of trailers without the gears removed but that adds quite a bit of unnecessary drag from the ring gear reverse driving the pinion gear. I sold the short tongue one to a guy who used it for years without complaint in his business and the other I gave to a friend who uses it on his acreage.

 

[SHORT KID]

The oil is what lubes the axle bearings.

 

[brokenknee]

I bought one years ago to haul wood. Wasn't worth the metal it was made out of. There was no way you could load the trailer were the thing would start swaying at anything over 40mph. I sold it for less than half of what I paid for it just to get rid of it.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I bought one years ago to haul wood. Wasn't worth the metal it was made out of. There was no way you could load the trailer were the thing would start swaying at anything over 40mph. I sold it for less than half of what I paid for it just to get rid of it.

My experience has been the same. All I have been around were unstable with way to high if a CG.

Chris

 

[Mace Canute]

There's one thing about trailers made from old truck boxes on a truck frame, they do have provisions for shock absorbers. If good shocks don't cure the sway problem it's likely that there isn't enough tongue weight.

 

[TCJatko]

Maybe you could hook an alternator to the differential yoke. Use that to charge batteries while you were cruising. Your own "hybrid", sort of.

 

[k0ua]

Maybe you could hook an alternator to the differential yoke. Use that to charge batteries while you were cruising. Your own "hybrid", sort of.

The only problem with that is...the old "there ain't not free lunch" problem.. if you put an generator/alternator on the drive shaft.. it will introduce even more drag. the net result will be negative energy generation In other words it will use more energy than it will produce... Sorry cant do it.. people have been trying for thousands of years..hook the input shaft to the output shaft..it is called perpetual motion.. Now you can generate power instead of converting motion to heat with brake pads you can make the stored energy brake the car by turning a generating device to produce power which you can store in a battery to use to drive the car again when you want to move forward instead of slowing down the car..This is what hybrids do, convert what would have been waste heat into useful energy to propel the car.

James K0UA

 

[flyerdan]

It's been noted that these trailers have problems with cg issues, that's a given since the axle placement was for weight distribution over the entire wheelbase. The reason that most of these get made is because we already have the raw materials and it costs very little to fab them up, other than time.
I'd thought about slaving an alternator to the differential yoke, but figured it would just be something else that would go wrong and need fixing to be worthwhile. Not like I need the power anyway. This is my lazy way to unload a non-dumping trailer.

 

[bcp]

Most beds seem to have the axle almost centered, and many extended-cab trucks have it in front of center, making it easy to get the weight in the wrong place when it becomes a trailer.

Bruce